Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 4: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the circumstances which lead to a Somalian mother, who was granted refugee status here in August 2004, having to take High Court action to reunite her family; the steps which have been taken to ensure that such an incident is not repeated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32817/08]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The Somalian woman referred to by the Deputy was granted refugee status in August 2004, and applied for family reunification in November 2004 in respect of her immediate and extended family members. Her application was processed in accordance with the provisions of the Refugee Act 1996, and a decision was made in the family reunification unit in August 2005 to grant family reunification to the immediate family members. At the same time, a separate decision was made refusing family reunification to the extended family members. Letters were prepared containing details of the decisions, but due to an unfortunate oversight, these letters were not issued at the time to the applicant. The file was inadvertently filed away and the relevant decision letters did not come to notice until February 2008, when a request under the Freedom of Information Act was received from the legal representatives of the woman concerned.

When the family reunification unit realised that the letters had not been issued, arrangements were made immediately to issue the letters to the applicant. Arrangements were also put in place to issue visas to the immediate family members through the Irish Embassy in Addis Ababa, in order to facilitate their entry into Ireland. However, some difficulties were encountered regarding the issue of the visas. Due to the passage of time since the original application for family reunification was made, further checks had to be carried out both in the Irish naturalisation and immigration service and at the Irish Embassy in Addis Ababa to verify the identities of the individuals involved, which included three young children. Such checks are very necessary in all applications for family reunification as great care has to be taken to ensure that the correct people are entering the State. The checks took about two weeks to complete, during which period the legal representatives of the person concerned pressed ahead with judicial review proceedings in the High Court. When the matter came before the High Court on 21 July 2008, it was explained that the visas were ready for collection at which point the judge adjourned the matter until 25 July. At the resumed hearing the matter was adjourned to the October term.

At that stage I ordered an internal review of all practices and procedures in the family reunification unit. The review was undertaken by staff at senior level and has since been completed. The review examined all files containing family reunification applications to ensure that there were no other similar cases left unattended. Following the review, new procedures are currently in the process of being developed and implemented and some additional resources have been allocated to the unit.

Additional information not provided on the floor of the House.

Having examined the matter, I am satisfied that this case was an unfortunate isolated incident caused by human error and I would like to assure the Deputy that the necessary remedial action has been taken to ensure that, in so far as possible, a similar situation will not occur again. I trust that the Deputy will also appreciate that as this particular case is currently the subject of High Court proceedings, I am constrained in the amount of information I can provide in response to his question.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for his reply. Between 2005 and the FOI request this year, there was a series of correspondence submitted to the Department and no substantive or reasonable response was given to those issues over that three year period. How is it that nobody thought to look at the file and respond to it over three years? Does this not highlight the fact that our current asylum system is a mess and that there is nobody in charge? What is being proposed in the current immigration Bill will not improve it.

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I do not accept the Deputy's allegation that nobody is in charge of it. He is being very unfair to the civil servants and gardaí who are working night and day on this issue, often in difficult circumstances. This was a case which slipped through due to human error. I believe that it was an isolated incident. Once it was brought to my attention, I asked for a review to be carried out. The review included the granting of additional resources, because the pressure of work in other areas, especially dealing with the great number of judicial reviews, took away some of the attention from the area of family reunification.

Additional resources have been assigned. There were four staff involved, but now there are eight. As part of the review, a new database has been installed to allow a better examination of ongoing issues. Regular case conferences on difficult cases are being held since July——

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I will allow a brief further supplementary question from Deputy Naughten if the Minister will yield.

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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An early warning system and a feedback system are in place to confirm the visa has been granted.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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I accept what the Minister says about human error and I have no doubt there was human error involved in the original decision. However, I am unable to understand that for three years, correspondence and communication went into that section of the Department and no one realised that the decision had already been made. This defies logic and it is not the result of human error.

If staff numbers have been doubled, does that mean that four staff members have been removed from another section within the asylum system? Can the Minister offer a categorical assurance that someone else is not rotting in a refugee camp in some part of the world who has been granted status in this country while this information has not been communicated to them?

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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I do not wish to speak about the circumstances of the family involved in this case. It was an unfortunate incident. I am unable to confirm there will not be other cases because I must accept there will be human error and this is the nature of life——

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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I am not talking about human error, it is subsequent to human error.

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The House is passing significant legislation which will allow for a single procedure in this system so that the very complex and piecemeal way in which the legislation has been dealt with in the past will be replaced with the new legislation and there will be a single procedure for application and decision. One of the significant problems is the multiplicity of judicial review applications and these take up a lot of time. I agree we had to divert staff from other areas to look after this area. This case highlighted the deficiencies in the staffing levels and in the modus operandi.